The investigation into a unit of Italian defense firm Finmeccanica SpA has sparked mixed reactions in Italy, with some – including former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi – saying bribe-giving is a necessary process when doing business in India.

The ongoing probe of the company, which is accused of bribing Indian officials to secure a €560 million ($750 million) helicopter deal, comes as Italy prepares for national elections this month, making corruption a focus of political debate.

“The electoral campaign is changing,” said Ezio Mauro, editor-in-chief of Italy’s La Repubblica newspaper in a video about the Finmeccanica scandal.

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The probe into Finmeccanica – which led to the arrest of the company’s now-former chief executive Giuseppe Orsi – is the latest corporate misconduct investigation to have swept Italy in recent months. Another was a criminal inquiry into whether a firm controlled by Italian energy firm Eni SpA bribed Algerian officials. Finmeccanica and Eni deny wrongdoing. Mr. Orsi also denies allegations that he might have been involved in the bribing of Indian officials. He has not been charged.

Some Italian politicians have strongly condemned corruption, but others including Mr. Berlusconi defended bribe-giving as inevitable for companies wanting to do business in countries like India. Mr. Berlusconi is leading the campaign for the center-right wing coalition.

“Bribing exists as a phenomenon, and there’s no point in denying there are situations in which it is necessary,” Mr. Berlusconi said on Italian television last week. He said leading Italian companies such as Finmeccanica “have to adapt” to how business is done in countries like India, “if they want to sell their products there.”

A spokesman from India’s Ministry of Commerce declined to comment. Other ministry officials weren’t reachable for comment. India has responded to allegations of corruption, launching its own probe into the 2010 deal by Finmeccanica’s U.K.-based unit AgustaWestland. Officials from India’s defense ministry and from the Central Bureau of Investigation are traveling to Italy this week to meet local officials and collect documents pertaining to the deal.

Bribery is obviously against the law in Italy, and Mr. Berlusconi’s remarks were widely condemned by other politicians. “No more bribes and no more Berlusconi,” Pierluigi Bersani, head of Italy’s center-left coalition and likely prime ministerial candidate, told reporters.

To Mr. Monti, the recent scandals brought back memories from the early 1990s, when Italian prosecutors uncovered corruption so extensive that the phenomenon became known as “Tangentopoli,” or “Bribesville.” But today, it’s worse as “there is less hope” that the Italian judiciary and civil society will effectively root out corruption, he said.

While condemning corruption, many commentators were concerned about what the allegations mean for the future of Finmeccanica, one of Italy’s largest companies, and for the country’s struggling economy.

“Finmeccanica has 70,000 employees, it’s the technological heart of Italian industry and it’s the symbol of the little we have left of our great manufacturing industry,” wrote Sergio Rizzo in an editorial published in Il Corriere Della Sera newspaper.

“We’re talking about a state-run company in which the private sector has invested heavily, a company that operates in a crucial sector, that has a strong international reach, and that deals with governments,” wrote Mr. Rizzo. “It’s impossible to anticipate the extent of the repercussions this episode will have.”

Il Giornale, a newspaper sympathetic to Mr. Berlusconi, and owned by his brother, was critical of the judiciary’s crackdown on Finmeccanica. “In their crusade against one of our top companies, Italian prosecutors are threatening thousands of jobs, heavily aggravating the economic crisis,” it said.

The article argued that a possible blacklisting of Finmeccanica from markets like India will leave room for other players. “This is an opportunity for French companies,” it said, noting the detention of Finmeccanica’s CEO came days before a planned visit of French President François Hollande to New Delhi.

Both Italy and India fared poorly in the latest corruption perception index released by watchdog Transparency International, ranking 72nd and 94th respectively in a list of 174 countries.

This comes at a delicate time for ties between Italy and India, which soured after two Italian marines were accused of fatally shooting two Indian fishermen off the coast of the southern state of Kerala a year ago. The marines deny murdering the fishermen.

Bilateral relations have been tense ever since, with Italy challenging India’s jurisdiction in the case, arguing the incident happened in international waters and that the naval officers must be tried home. India has pushed back, saying its courts should handle the matter.

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